Melissa Krumbein, the entrepreneur behind Kitchen Thyme, will begin teaching ethnic cooking courses, starting with food from her own heritage, Jewish soul food, on Wednesday, Sept. 5. Classes will precede Jewish holidays and each class will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Kitchen Thyme, located at 7801-25 W. Broad St. The series of classes offered by Krumbein is “Getting Ready for the Holidays” and starts with foods of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. The second class will be Sept. 19 featuring recipes to enjoy in the Sukkah. Each class is $54; subscribing to all seven classes is $360. For more information and to register, call 396-COOK or visit http://www.kitchenthymerva.com .

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Gail Letts, president and CEO of SunTrust Bank, has been elected the new chair of the Board of Directors for United Way of Greater Richmond and Petersburg. Letts, who has been on the board since 2008, will serve as chair until June 2014. Channing J. Martin, chair of the Environmental Law Group at Williams Mullen and a longtime United Way Board member, has been elected to the vice chair position. Four new members have also been elected to the Board of Directors: Robert K. Blake – longtime United Way volunteer and current chair of the Community Building Committee, which oversees United Way’s community impact work; Jonathan A. Leon – treasurer of The Brink’s Company and member of the Board’s Investment Committee and Finance Committee; Gail W. Johnson – founder and owner of Rainbow Stations and chair of United Way’s Women’s Leadership Initiative; and J. Scott Walters – associate vice president and the regional counsel for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Practice Group at Nationwide Insurance and previous board member for United Way of Marathon County in Wisconsin.

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Circle Center Adult Day Services will hold an open house from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 18. Learn about the Center’s innovative programs for older adults, post-stroke and wellness, medication management, low-cost options for long term care and more. Circle Center Adult Day Services is located at 4900 W. Marshall St. For more information, call Molly MacBean at 355-5717 or visit http://www.circlecenterads.org .

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Bobby Ukrop, president and CEO of Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods, will be the guest of a C-Suite Conversation Sept. 20 at University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business. C-Suite Conversations are unscripted interviews with leading business decision makers. The series highlights challenges and opportunities of high-level executives and provides insight about balancing leadership obligations with the needs of stakeholders. Richard Coughlan, senior associate dean of the Robins School of Business, will interview Ukrop about leadership, decision making, strategy and other areas that contribute to an organization’s success in a question-and-answer format. The program will be held at Queally Hall, Ukrop Auditorium, at 8 a.m., following a networking breakfast at 7:30 a.m. The event is free and open to the public, but online registration is required at http://tiny.cc/csuiteukrop092012